Climatic Fluctuations and the Diffusion of Agriculture / Quamrul Ashraf, Stelios Michalopoulos.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ashraf, Quamrul.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Michalopoulos, Stelios.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w18765.

NBER working paper series no. w18765

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2013.

Summary:

This research examines the climatic origins of the diffusion of Neolithic agriculture across countries and archaeological sites. The theory suggests that a foraging society s history of climatic shocks shaped the timing of its adoption of farming. Specifically, as long as climatic disturbances did not lead to a collapse of the underlying resource base, the rate at which hunter-gatherers were climatically propelled to experiment with their habitats determined the accumulation of tacit knowledge complementary to farming. Consistent with the proposed hypothesis, the empirical investigation demonstrates that, conditional on biogeographic endowments, climatic volatility has a hump-shaped effect on the timing of the adoption of agriculture.

Notes:

Print version record

February 2013.